Chapter 9: Sweet Goodbyes

Caroline and Klaus drove along in a comfortable silence, not having much to say to each other and Caroline was still trying to figure out where he was taking her. Suddenly he leaned over and whispered into her ear, "Close your eyes love otherwise you'll ruin the surprise." She giggled to herself as she realized the surprise was ruined already as her being a vampire was not deaf, in fact possessed hearing even better than an average human had heard the waves lapping up on the shore ahead of them.

"You know I can already hear the waves right? Did somebody forget that as a vampire there is no way for you to really disguise the sounds of a beach from me?" She giggled again, this time playfully punching him in the arm.

"Well a guy can try right?" He chuckled as he pulled into the parking lot. The couple got out and Caroline walked over to his side of the car, resting her head on his shoulder as they walked to the shoreline. Klaus slipped his hand into hers and squeezed it gently giving her a quick kiss on the forehead.

As the sand began to get thicker Caroline flipped off her sandals happily and whispered breathily to him "I'm glad you had me wear these now." She then broke their hands and skipped off toward the water with a spring in her step. Klaus shook his head as he watched the bubbly blonde female skip around in the water and laughed to himself as he saw her get too far out and squeak as the water got too high and she splashed away back into the shallows. Getting back to "safety" he saw her suddenly snap her head up to attention and focused on him. "Are you coming or what? Or are you just going to stand there staring at me like a creeper here having fun all by myself here in the waves?"

Klaus just shook his head at her in amusement and shook off his own footwear besides hers. He ran to the water and joined his girlfriend who seemed to be having way too much fun. "Love it's like you've never been to the beach before, you have been before right?"

"Yes, of course I have silly, I just don't get to very often. It's an awkward distance between here and Mystic Falls and most of the time I'm too busy with school to be making any beach trip days." At this she looked downcast, but quickly forgot her sad moment and went back to playing in the waves. For a while this went on with them splashing at each other until they grew tired of their games and climbed out, both nearly soaked to skin with water, neither who was wearing a proper bathing suit.

They ran back to the car and Klaus opened his trunk up and grabbed a blanket that he had stored back there just for this outing. They ran back to the beachfront and chose a spot in the sand where they were safe from the water. As they sat down, Caroline leaned back into Klaus's chest and relaxed into his arms as he rested his head on her shoulder. After they got comfortable and settled they just sat watching the waves and the beautiful sunset. Just then Caroline realized something and that something just happened to be her three letters of recommendation that she had put into her back pocket.

"Oh crap, crap, crap crap!" Caroline shot out of Klaus's arms and immediately went to her back pocket feeling the wet pages as she pulled them out.

"What is it love?" Klaus looked over to her concerned and confused at why she jumped up so quickly. Caroline held up the sodden envelopes and pages so he could see. "Those aren't what I think they are they?" He asked genuinely concerned.

"What do you think that they are because of you are guessing my letters of acceptance that I haven't seen yet then you'd be correct... Well I guess it's time to find out if I did get in or not then. I don't want to look you do it!" She said as she threw the wet pages at him.

Klaus reached up and grabbed them out of the air and took the individual pages out of the envelopes. He peeled the parts of the folded pages away from each other and opened the first one. He then looked down at the paper with ink bled all over it. "Well umm I think this one was from Pepperdine... and well..." He tilted his head to be able to read it a little better "I'm sorry to say this, but I don't think that you got in..."

"Awe!" She whined, oh well it wasn't my top pick anyway. "Ok, what about the next one?" She asked. He opened up the next envelope and repeated the same action with these soaked pages. "This one is from Cal Poly because I can barely see the mustang at the top now." He read down as much as he could and found what he was looking for. "Oh congratulations! You were accepted here!" He said cheerfully.

"Yay!" Caroline shouted gleefully "That was my first pick!" She jumped up and down excitedly and after her little happy dance she finally settled back down on the blanket next to him again. "Well, I guess that's where I'm headed then. Off to California I go!" Then she remembered what the downside to that was. "But you can't come with me." Caroline whispered sadly resting her head back on his shoulder. They stayed at the beach for a while until it was completely dark then finally drove home.